republicans are kind of angling to blame sandy and chris christie for mitt romney's loss. he has to reaffirm the republican base that he's with them. >> ari, when you look at the president's approval numbers on the storm, i believe it's 67% of the public according to our nbc news numbers, 67% approve, 16% disapprove. 17% not sure. it's not something that the republicans want, certainly sandy has done a good job of not only making the case are for government but showing that the president is capable of working across the aisle? >> yeah. i don't think that people really in ohio, for example, are going to change their mind over the last minute over this leadership, good as it is. but i do think to your point that what we see here is a freezing of the political facts that existed a week ago where mitt romney was gaining a little but no way in the lead. the new poll number out tonight still show this slight but real edge for the president. and not a big edge. but, again, mitt romney lost a week of politicking here and that is the biggest problem. if the republicans now as a pre